KENSWORTH
Canesworda (xi cent.); Keneswurda (xii cent.);Ikenesworth (xiii cent.); Kenisworye and Keynesworth(xiv cent.); Kneysworth (xvi cent).
The parish of Kensworth was transferred to Bedfordshire in 1897, but was originally in the hundredof Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The Watling Streetforms its boundary on the north-east, and in the westthe parish extends to the Dunstable Downs. Theland at the highest point in the north is 764ft. abovethe ordnance datum, but in the east its height is onlyabout 449 ft.
The parish is divided into three distinct parts,Church End, the Lynch, and Kensworth Common.Church End, comprising Burystead and ChurchEnd Farms, and a few cottages, stands in the north;Burystead farm-house, once the manor-house, hasbeen much altered, but a little of the old oak panelling remains. Church End Farm has a large cellarunder the house, which is said to have been a hidingplace of Dick Turpin. From this hamlet a longnarrow beech-shaded road leads down to the Lynch,in the south-east. In the Lynch are three importanthouses. A modern one of white stucco called LynchHouse is the residence and property of Mr. BenjaminBennett. The house was built by the previous ownerto fit the windows and staircase brought from a housein Ealing, in which the late Queen Victoria when alittle girl lived for a time. Mr. Bennett owns alsothe large red-brick house called The Lynch, nowtenanted by Miss Beresford-Hope. In 1798 TheLynch was called the Mansion House of the Howardfamily. The third house of importance is Lynch Lodge,tenanted by Mr. Palmer, which stands near the pointwhere the Lynch Road branches off to meet the Watling Street. A few smaller houses with the PackHorse Inn, at which the manor-courts are now heldtriennially, complete the Lynch. South of the parishis a double line of houses on either side of the Dunstable high road. This hamlet is called KensworthCommon. It lies high, and is divided from the restof the parish by a valley running east and west. Thehouses which stand back from the road mark the oldedge of the common. Those close to the road beganto be built some 100 years ago, when the commonwas inclosed. (fn. 1)
There is a large farm in the north-west calledDowns Farm, where Mr. F. T. Fossey, the owner,lives. He owns also a great part of the old manorialestate. On an iron fire-back here is represented KingCharles on horseback. This was taken from alittle house called Cantling's, near the old church,which is about 160 years old. Mr. Fossey used tolive at Bleak Hall, which was formerly a workhouse.It is now the residence of Mr. W. Hoyland Jackson.
The older houses are of a dull red brick, with tiledroofs, but the more modern are poorly built andslated. The soil is clay with flints and an occasionalbrick earth. (fn. 2) On the south of the common, wheretradition says there was once a Roman camp, are nowbrick-fields. The subsoil is chiefly chalk, though anoutlier of the Reading Beds occurs to the south ofKensworth village. (fn. 3) The whole parish covers an areaof some 3,131 acres, of which, in 1905, 1,935 acreswere arable land, 408 acres permanent grass, and 45acres woodland. (fn. 4) The greater number of the population are employed in agriculture, and a little strawhat making is done by the women.
One feature of this village is the great depth of thewells. At three of the farms, two of which are atChurch End, donkeys are employed to raise the water.They walk in large wooden wheels in tread-millfashion. One of the wheels, which is more carefullyworked than the others, bears the date 1688.
The following are among the ancient place names:le Styperesdon, Puthamstude, Aveldone or Aldone,Spondene, Felmerlane, Hawbynstresse, Kyxdell, Dradlynche, Antheley Cross, Thefwey, Flexwey, HuckeshoLane, Tittenhanger Close.
MANORS
The manor of KENSWORTH, likethe neighbouring manor of Caddington,was held of King Edward the Confessorby Lewin 'cilt,' and the two estates seem to havepassed together to the canons of St. Paul's, London,by whom they were held at the time of the DomesdaySurvey. (fn. 5) From this time forward their history hasbeen almost identical; the court rolls, surveys, andleases in the possession of the Dean and Chapter ofLondon show that both manors were frequentlyfarmed together, and the same customs and liberties seemto have been claimed on both. With but one shortinterruption both have been held by the Dean andChapter of St. Paul's from the day when they werepresented to the church by Lewin, until the year1872, (fn. 6) when they were taken over by the EcclesiasticalCommissioners. The interruption occurred duringthe Commonwealth, when, under the 'Act for theSale of Dean and Chapters' Land,' Kensworth manorwas sold in 1649 to William Barbour of Redbourn, (fn. 7) only to be restored to the Dean and Chapter in1660.
The prioress of Markyate was a tenant of Kensworth,as of Caddington. She owed suit twice yearly at themanorial court, and was bound to do fealty to thefarmer of the manor for the time being. In 1297 itwas presented that she might not dig in the woodwithout leave or take away trees that were blown downthere. (fn. 8)
The monks of Dunstable had right of common ofpasture in Kensworth, (fn. 9) as well as in Caddington, andin 1242 a quarrel seems to have arisen between themand the dean of London with regard to this right.The monks complained that the dean had taken theircattle and detained them for eight days. Theydelivered them by writ of the king, and so the commonremained to them, and the dean then seized theircattle at Caddington. The monks again deliveredthem, but then William de St. Mere l'Eglise, dean ofLondon, died suddenly, and the suit was stopped. (fn. 10) The bishop of Salisbury gave sentence against thepriory, both in Kensworth and Caddington in 1248. (fn. 11)
The inhabitants of Kensworth complained in 1621that, notwithstanding five verdicts against Henry Conyand Philip Pherrers, they were still obstructed intheir rights of common. (fn. 12) Twenty years later theyagain complained that the Dean and Chapter hadleased a waste called Kensworth Wood, over whichthey had right of common. (fn. 13)
The Inge family seems also to have held land hereat an early date. In 1310–11 Edmund Inge receiveda grant of free warren in Kensworth, (fn. 14) and if hisproperty in the parish was anything more thanappurtenant to one of his other estates, it mayprobably be identified with the sub-manor subsequently held by the Zouches, and variously calledKEYNESWORTH, DAMSARIES, DAMSERS orDAMESAYERS. It was held in the sixteenthcentury freely by charter, for fealty, suit of court,and an annual rent of 48s. due to the Dean andChapter of London. During the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries it appears to have followed the samedescent as the manor of Zouches in Caddingtonparish (q.v.), but in 1544 Richard Zouche, son andheir-apparent of John Zouche, knt., Lord St. Maurand Cantelow, conveyed it to Reginald Conygraveand Joan his wife, (fn. 15) from whom it passed in thefollowing year to Robert Ameryke or Meryke ofDunstable, (fn. 16) who appears to have died almost immediately after having made the purchase, and wassucceeded by his son Robert. In 1560 the jurors ofthe court baron presented that Robert Meryke heldthe manor in socage, at a rent of 48s. a year, andthat he sold it to one 'Trofton' of Stony Stratford. (fn. 17) Ten years later Richard 'Trowghton' sold theproperty to Edward Wingate. (fn. 18)
In 1578 John Alway, who was probably thesecond husband of Mary, formerly wife of Edmund,brother of Edward Wingate, died seised of the manorof 'Dame Seres,' leaving a son and heir, John, underage, (fn. 19) but the manor seems to have passed to a youngerson Richard, who died in 1611. (fn. 20) By his will heleft it to a kinswoman, MaryBurrell, for life, with remainder to the heirs male ofRalph Alway, brother ofRichard, if any should survive her. Mary was holdingthe estate in 1618, (fn. 21) and probably married Thomas Sheafe,S.T.P. Mary Sheafe devisedthis manor to a kinsman,William Burrell or Burwell,who sold it in 1642 toRobert Napier of Luton Hoo. (fn. 22) His son, Sir John Napier, wasapparently holding the estate in 1669, when heappears in the manorial rent roll as paying £2 8s.,and in 1677 he and his son owed suit of court. (fn. 23)
In 1796–7 the manor was conveyed by fine fromThomas Cooke to George Maddison, (fn. 24) who in 1809with his wife, Mary daughter of Henry Alington, (fn. 25) conveyed it to Henry Alington, who may have beena trustee for Mordaunt Lawson Chennell. (fn. 26) Fromthis point the history of Damesayers is lost, and itsexistence as a manor seems to have ceased. At thepresent day there is a little copse known as DameSayers Hill Wood in the Lynch. The site of DameSayers manor-house is not known, but it seems notimprobable it may have been where Lynch Lodgenow stands.
CHURCH
The church of OUR LADY, KENSWORTH, consists of a chancel 33 ft. 4 in.by 20 ft. 2 in., a nave 47 ft. by 24 ft.with south porch and a west tower.
The west tower is an addition of the fifteenthcentury, and the chancel has been lengthened some10 ft. in the same century, but with these exceptionsand certain alterations to the windows, &c., the mainstructure remains as it was first built, somewhereabout the year 1100, a small but spacious and dignified building, with small windows set high in thewalls, a lofty west doorway, a less important southdoorway, and a wide chancel arch, 11 ft. 6 in. inspan. The east end of the original chancel havingbeen destroyed, there is nothing to show its form, butit seems probable that it was square and not apsidal.The west wall of the nave is 3 ft. 9 in. thick, and theeast wall an inch less, while the north and southwalls are 3 ft. 3 in. The walls are covered withrough-cast, but a drawing of the north wall of thenave when partly uncovered shows it to be built offlint rubble alternating with single courses of stone,like the walling of the nave of Norton church, nearBaldock. The stone used in the details of doorwaysand windows is not of the local clunch formation, buta coarse polite, resembling Barnack rag, and possiblycoming from Northamptonshire.
The chancel has an east window of three cinquefoiled lights with tracery of fifteenth-century design,the stonework having been renewed in 1869; oneach side of it is a cinquefoiled niche for an image,that on the south, contrary to the usual custom, beingthe larger. At the south-east angle is a trefoiledpiscina with a modern bowl. In the north wall aretwo original narrow round-headed windows, the outerheads in one stone worked with a sunk roll, andthe jambs having ashlar dressings of small stoneswith wide mortar joints. Beneath the western ofthese windows is a square-headed fifteenth-centurywindow of two trefoiled lights, with a flat sill, setlow in the wall.
In the south wall is a modern copy of this window,in a corresponding position, and to the east of it asmall fifteenth-century doorway, (fn. 27) with a mouldedarch. East of the doorway is a thirteenth-centurylancet, with ugly modern stonework, and towards theeast end of the wall a square-headed window of twotrefoiled lights, the tracery being modern, with itssill carried down to serve as sedilia.
The chancel arch is semicircular, of two orders,with a torus on the soffit of the inner order and a rollon the outer order. The jambs have half-roundshafts to the inner order, with simple scalloped capitalsand moulded bases of early type, and nook-shafts withcushion capitals to the outer order on the west face.In the east gable above the arch is a two-light windowinserted in 1854. The fifteenth-century rood-loftstair remains in the north-east angle of the nave, itsupper doorway being still open, while the lower isblocked and plastered over.
The nave retains its three original north windows,which are like those in the chancel, except that twosunk rolls are cut in the heads instead of one, theouter roll being in one case ornamented with a zigzagline. Between the second and third windows is ablocked doorway, which seems to be fifteenth-centurywork, and it is not clear whether it replaces an olderdoorway in this position. The original windows inthe south wall have given place to three fifteenth-century windows, each of two trefoiled lights with aquatrefoil in the head, but the twelfth-century southdoorway remains, with a round arch of two orders,the outer having a roll between two hollows, whilethe inner is square, each voussoir being carved withshallow diaper patterns, and on the keystone is across. The jambs have nook-shafts in the outer order,with carved capitals, that on the east showing interlacing patterns, chiefly Stafford knots, while the otherhas subjects which have been explained as representations of two fables, those of the wolf and the crane,and the kite and the snake. The abaci are square,with interlacing patterns on the chamfer. The porchover this doorway is modern.
The west doorway is of very similar design, butmuch taller, its rear arch being no less than 12 ft. 4 in.high to the crown, and it is possible that this is asurvival of pre-Conquest tradition. The doorway is5 ft. 2 in. wide between the jambs of the innerorder, but has been further widened towards the naveby cutting back the jambs of the rear arch. Its westface, originally external, is of the same design as thesouth doorway, except that there is more variety inthe diaper patterns, two being like degenerate humanfigures, while one consists of a cross between fourbirds, like the type on one of Edward the Confessor'spennies, in later days assigned to him as an armorialbearing, and another shows a dragon, while the keystone, as in the south doorway, bears a cross. Thecapitals are plainer, that on the south having a sunkstair in a circle, while the north capital, which is amodern copy, has a fret in a circle, and both havesmall human heads filling up the angles, and interlacing patterns on the chamfers of the abaci. Thewest tower, which was built before 1458, being mentioned in the visitation (fn. 28) of that year by the dean ofSt. Paul's, has a four-centred west doorway under asquare head, and over it a west window of threecinquefoiled lights. It has a vice in a projectingturret at the south-east angle, and in the belfry stagewindows of two trefoiled lights. It was covered withrough-cast in 1747, as recorded on its south wall, andis built mainly of blocks of clunch, which are at leastto some extent old material re-used, as a stone withremains of two incised sun-dials is to be seen on thenorth face of the north-west buttress. (fn. 29)
The woodwork of the roof of the church is notancient, nor are any of the fittings, but a seventeenth-century altar-table is used as a credence in thechancel.
The font stands at the north-west of the nave,having formerly stood in the middle in front of thewest doorway. It has a round bowl on a round stemwith a central ring and a plain base, and thoughancient is hard to date, perhaps belonging to thefifteenth century. It has a turned wooden cover witha finial, of no great age.
In the west window of the nave on the south sideare a few pieces of fifteenth-century glass with foliagepatterns.
In the chancel floor near the south doorway is ablue marble slab with the indents of the figures of aman and a woman with an inscription below, probably c. 1500.
There are five bells, all by George Chandler ofDrayton Parslow, 1717.
The plate consists of a silver cup, flagon, large andsmall patens, and spoon with perforated bowl, all of1731, given by Jane Cart in that year, and kept in acontemporary mahogany chest.
The registers begin in 1615, the first book containing baptisms and burials to 1781, and marriages to1753. The second book has baptisms and burials to1812, the third marriages to 1805, and the fourththe same to 1810.
ADVOWSON
The church of Kensworth wasgranted to the dean and canons ofLondon by Walter bishop of Lincolnin 1183–4, (fn. 30) and in 1266 the church and vicaragewere ordained by Bishop Richard Gravesend. (fn. 31) Bythis ordination the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul'swere to have the great tithes and to appoint 'aliterate and honest man' in priest's orders to servethe church and receive the lesser tithes. At the timeof a visitation of the church in 1297 it was presentedthat the building and furniture were in good repair,that the vicar had a messuage, formerly the rectory,assigned to him by Master Thomas Inglethorp, latedean. (fn. 32)
The living is now a vicarage in the gift of theDean and Chapter of St. Paul's.
A rent from two acres of land in Kensworth, lateAnderleys, was given for the maintenance of a lamp.The rent was in 1548–9 in the hands of AnthonyStubing. (fn. 33)
A tenement called the Church House in Kensworthwas granted in 1588–9 to William Tipper andRobert Dawe. It had formerly belonged to theinhabitants of Kensworth. (fn. 34)
Kensworth, previous to the Toleration Act, wasthe head quarters of Hertfordshire Baptists, andthither resorted many who resided in upwards ofthirty villages and towns of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Edward Harrison, vicar of Kensworth in1645, was a well-known champion of Baptist views,and John Bunyan was a member of the Baptist churchat Kensworth. The first registration for Anabaptistsoccurs in 1690, and a Wesleyan chapel was certifiedin 1830.
In 1675 some extracts were made from thevolumes relating to the Baptist church of Kensworth. This book now belongs to the Baptistchurch in Dagnal Street, St. Albans, a branch or,perhaps, the remains of the Kensworth church, fora tablet in the vestry states that the church waserected in 1720, having been removed from thevillage of Kensworth. (fn. 35)
There is now a Wesleyan chapel at Kensworth.
CHARITIES
In 1754 Richard Burgis and Maryhis wife by deed conveyed to trustees2 acres in the parish of Caddington,the rents and profits to be divided among poor widowsand other poor people on St. Thomas's Day, and also4 acres in the same parish for educational purposes.The lands by admeasurement contain 6 acres, 3 roods,18 poles, which are now let at £11 a year.
By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated6 December, 1892, one-third of the income is madeapplicable for the benefit of the poor of Kensworthin such manner as may seem to the trustees mostconducive to the formation of provident habits,and two-thirds in the advancement of educationof children attending public elementary schoolsin the parish at which religious instruction inaccordance with the principles of the Church ofEngland is given.
In 1866 Abraham Fossey bequeathed a legacyfor the benefit of the sexton, now represented by£105 4 per cent. preference stock of the GreatNorthern Railway Company and £9 3s. 2d. consols(both held by the official trustees). By a schemeof the Charity Commissioners of 3 March, 1893,the income is to be given to the sexton for thetime being upon condition of his keeping thechurchyard and the walks approaching thereto freefrom weeds.
